Why didn't Va. reverse I-64 eastbound traffic before Irene?

As Hurricane Irene barreled this way in late August as a Category 3 storm, it seemed Virginia might finally employ a tactic contemplated for years by emergency management officials: reversing traffic on eastbound Interstate 64 to ease congestion from residents fleeing the storm.

Officials in Richmond began studying the lane reversal concept in 2001, a few years after Hurricane Floyd sparked what came to be known as the largest peacetime evacuation in U.S. history.

In that storm, almost half a million South Carolina residents fled inland from Charleston, causing major backups on Interstate 26. That state eventually reversed traffic on the eastbound lanes, allowing vehicles to travel the “wrong” way down the highway, but not before some drivers spent 15 hours traveling 100 miles.

Stewart Baker, hurricane program manager at the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, said Floyd spurred Virginia officials to think seriously about how to move southeastern Virginians away from a powerful hurricane. One tool they wanted to consider was lane reversal.

In subsequent years, the 36 eastbound entrances to I-64 between Hampton Roads and Richmond were equipped with gates to stop traffic from entering, allowing westbound motorists to use the lanes.

But deciding to reverse traffic is a big decision, Baker said. Hundreds of state police, Virginia Department of Transportation and emergency personnel and National Guard soldiers must be mobilized to manage the process.

Ideally, the reversal would be in place for at least 24 hours, giving those ordered to evacuate time to clear out. And lane reversal isn’t a panacea for everyone in Hampton Roads, he noted – it’s specifically designed to allow people in Norfolk and north of Interstate 264 in Virginia Beach to get out before a storm hits.

Residents of Portsmouth, Suffolk, Chesapeake and southern Virginia Beach are expected to head west on I-264, U.S. 58 and U.S. 460, Baker said.

The eastbound lane of I-64 would be accessible only from Norfolk. Peninsula drivers would have to use the standard westbound routes.

Cars would enter the “wrong” lane from mile marker 273, just outside the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel in Norfolk, and could proceed for 73 miles until the highway intersects Interstate 295.

There is no checklist of specific conditions that must be met in order for the governor to reverse the lanes. Although the final decision on lane reversal falls to the governor, members of the Virginia Evacuation Coordination Team for Operational Response offer advice. They analyze a storm’s predicted track, expected storm surge and the number of residents ordered to evacuate, then look at the flow of traffic and the time until expected landfall.

With Irene, Baker said, only a few hundred people were ordered out of Sandbridge in Virginia Beach. Some 200,000 people chose to leave voluntarily from southeast Virginia and the Eastern Shore.

The total sounds large, but if the storm had been forecast to follow a northwest trajectory, twice as many people would have been threatened by the storm surge.

“That makes a significant difference in the decision” to reverse lanes, Baker said.

Another factor is where the storm surge is supposed to be worst. If that’s in Norfolk and northern Virginia Beach, lane reversals would be more likely.

But if it’s in areas closer to Interstate 264, those residents would evacuate westward, not north toward Richmond, reducing the need for the extra lanes on I-64.

Baker and Laura Southard, a VDEM spokeswoman, said many residents in low-lying areas don’t realize they don’t have to go far in an evacuation. Getting out of a projected storm surge can often be accomplished by driving across town and riding out the storm at a slightly higher elevation.

For those who do leave town, getting out early – lane reversal or not – is key.

“If any citizen is serious about evacuating, the sooner they leave, the quicker they can get to their designated point with the least congestion,” Baker said.

Kate Wiltrout, (757) 446-2629, kate.wiltrout@pilotonline.com